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Conflict:
Denied Ops

Score:
5.5 / 10

First-person
shooters are all over the damn place nowadays – and a lot of them are
actually good.Games like
Call of Duty 4 and the multi-headed Orange Box are at the head of the
class.Conflict: Denied Ops
is closer to the back of the class, but is saved from failure by
including a straightforward co-op mode, with the emphasis on blowing
things up rather than any kind of military tactics.

There
are bad things happening in the world and gruff sniper Lincoln Graves and
machine gun-toting Reggie Lang are sent through the typical collection of
environments to root out evil and blow up anything and everything that
gets in their way.

If
that weren’t enough of a tip off that Conflict: Denied Ops is as
straightforward a shooter as there ever was, the ammo is unlimited, which is a
good thing because

the
selection of weapons is extremely limited – you can’t even pick-up
weapons from enemies.The
only item that needs to be replenish are your grenades, which can be
acquired at conveniently placed supply crates.

I
actually don’t have a problem with either of those things, and I’ll
even give the graphics a pass (for the most

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part),
but what’s really frustrating is the pathfinding of your AI
counterpart.You can hop
between the two characters at a button press and I found myself
constantly switching between them when I found that when left alone your
AI buddy gets hung up on objects and just can’t navigate the
environment the way a human can.There
are some basic commands you can give your AI buddy, but that doesn’t
alleviate the need to leapfrog to keep the duo together.However, the developers should be lauded for including the
ability to heal each other.Even
in single-player, if you “die” you immediately plunk into the other
character, so you can run over and heal the “dead” character.It’s like Gears of War,
only better.

The
game fairs much better when played with a real
buddy.At which point, you
can both contend with sluggish controls and odd button placement, like
clicking the right stick in order to zoom in.It’s not game-breaking but it sure doesn’t help the overall
package.

The
other aspect of Conflict: Denied Ops which is very good is the level
design.Though there’s no
continuity between areas – you’ll jump from the desert to the artic
(without changing your camo – the levels themselves feature some very
good layouts.Typically,
large open areas are connected by fractured paths with many different
approaches possible, with some “duck and cover” tactics popping up
sporadically.

Conflict:
Denied Ops isn’t a very good game, but it’s hard to actively dislike
because the co-op mode can be a lot of fun even if you have to cope with
the game’s other failings.